Metro Transit increasing service in August

Service cuts restored to make good with drivers and riders

When Metro Transit cut service in December on Route 30—a route that connects north and northeast residents to the Quarry Shopping Center and the Mid-City Industrial Park in northeast Minneapolis, and the Westgate office park at the western edge of St. Paul—it upended the schedule of many Northside residents who rely on the route to get to work.

Like Mike Ondieki, who works at the Mid-City Industrial Park and lives in North Minneapolis. “I either had to leave earlier to get to work earlier, or I showed up a bit late,” said Ondieki as he rode the 30 home from work. “When they cut back the buses, I noticed they started to be late more often, too.” 

Ondieki, along with fellow rider Ramon Collaso, were excited to hear that Metro Transit was restoring Route 30 service this month. “That would be a vast improvement because I got stuck a couple times. If you miss it by a minute, you gotta wait awhile, a whole ‘nother hour,” said Collaso upon hearing that the 30 will begin running every 30 minutes all day, every day. 

As Metro Transit makes headway in hiring more drivers and as more riders return to the system, the agency is looking to add back more service in the coming year. The expansion comes at a time when the agency is dealing with changes in commuting patterns, working conditions and leadership.

In June, the transit agency started restoring service that was cut over the last three years. On August 19, they will add service to some of the busiest and most vital routes, including lines that do not serve downtown Minneapolis. In the next year, the agency could begin restoring 88 percent of the bus service it provided before the pandemic began. 

The increase in service is the result of the state legislature having passed a 0.75 percent sales tax to fund Twin Cities transit, which will take effect in October. 

In addition to changes to Route 30, other routes that serve North Minneapolis and its northern suburbs will also see service increases. To the south, Route 9—which runs on Glenwood Avenue between Cedar Lake Road and Hopkins Crossroad in Minnetonka, St. Louis Park, and Minneapolis’ Longfellow neighborhood—will run every 30 minutes on Saturdays. 

To the north, Route 801, which currently runs mostly between Central and 41st Avenues in Columbia Heights and Rosedale Mall in Roseville, will include an all-day stop on weekdays across the street from Brooklyn Center Transit Center, as opposed to only during rush hour. 

St. Paul is also getting some modest service increases. Routes 65 on Dale Street, Route 67 on Franklin and Minnehaha Avenues, Route 83 on Lexington Parkway and Route 87 on Cleveland Avenue will run every 30 minutes for most of the day, and on most days during the week. 

Closer to downtown Minneapolis, four of Metro Transit’s busiest routes will see service increases. On weekdays, Route 2 on Franklin, the A Line on Snelling, as well as Route 18 on Nicollet between downtown and 66th Street in Richfield and Route 10 on Central between downtown and 53rd Avenue in Fridley, will begin running every 10 minutes on weekday afternoons, up from the current schedule of every 15 minutes. 

The Orange Line express bus that runs from downtown Minneapolis on I-35W toll lanes to Richfield, Bloomington and Burnsville will run every 15 minutes later into the evening and during the day on Saturdays.

Although ridership from January to April 2023 remains at roughly half of what ridership was during the same period in 2019, it is 15 percent higher compared to the same period last year. Since the pandemic began, agency planners noticed more people are riding later in the day, rather than the two-hour commuter window in the morning and in the afternoon.

“One of the things that we’re noticing with travel is that we don’t have as much of a strong peak [transit] period anymore. [Transit travel is] a lot more consistent throughout the day,” said Metro Transit Director of Finance Ed Petrie as he presented to the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Committee on July 24.

The changes the agency is making also help with its ongoing efforts toward eliminating split shifts, where a worker is required to take a long, unpaid break in between the times they work. It’s something long demanded by the drivers’ union, Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1005, in its negotiations for a new contract. 

“It takes up a huge chunk of your day. If you have a two- or three-hour split, [and] if it’s an eight-hour shift, that’s three extra hours on to your day. It wears on you after a while, not getting home until later on in the evening,” said ATU Local 1005 President Ryan Timlin. “We’ve been asking [for more] one-piece runs. Covid has shown that it can actually happen.”

The agency is required to schedule 55 percent of splits as straight-through work, which can range anywhere from four to 10 hours without an unpaid break in between. However, Local 1005 estimates the share of straight-through work scheduled by Metro Transit today is closer to 82 percent. 

This upcoming round of service changes won’t include increases to express bus service. Express bus ridership remains a small part of the agency’s overall ridership, at just over 260,000 riders, or three percent of total systemwide ridership from January to April 2023. That is only 14 percent of what express ridership was at the same time back in 2019. 

In emails obtained from the agency through public records requests, the agency is making the best of its chronic driver shortage by consolidating its express routes to operate from one park-and-ride facility for each major freeway. 

With increased service on several routes, Metro Transit plans to make very few cuts, if any. Also on August 19, the agency will realign Route 17 in northeast Minneapolis to end at Central and Lowry, about half a mile east of where it currently ends, at Washington and 27th Avenues. The agency will also eliminate some Route 17 stops. 

In fact, in late July the agency eliminated the southbound stop at Nicollet Avenue and 15th Street. Route 17F service—which branches off of Minnetonka Boulevard at Ottawa Avenue in St. Louis Park, continuing onto Belt Line Boulevard and 36th Street to Wooddale Avenue—will be reduced to four trips per day. There will be two heading to 36th and Wooddale in the morning, and two leaving 36th and Wooddale in the afternoon. 

In July, Routes 32 and 62 became fare-free until the end of December 2024 because of state law that passed this past legislative session requiring the agency to test out the fare-free idea and submit an evaluation report on it. 

The agency has no plans to restore overnight service anytime soon. They suspended all overnight service as the pandemic began, citing the disproportionate number of biohazard incidents happening on overnight trips compared to trips that occur at other times of day. 

And although they plan to budget for more light rail service next year, they have had trouble hiring enough drivers to meet the demand. The agency, which currently has around 85 light rail operators, needs just over 120 to restore service to 10-minute intervals. 

As Metro Transit service evolves, so does its leadership. Lesley Kandaras, who served as interim general manager over the past six months, became Metro Transit’s new general manager on July 27. Previously serving as the agency’s chief of staff, Kandaras is the first woman to run the agency and replaces Wes Kooistra, who quietly retired in February. 

The following routes will change on August 19: Orange Line, A Line, D Line, 2, 3, 5, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 22, 30, 32, 46, 65, 67, 83, 87, 219, 323, 540, 542, 801, 804. Visit https://www.metrotransit.org/quarterly-service-changes-begin-saturday-aug-19 to learn more.